The Oscar-nominated film Silver Linings Playbook introduces us to messy relationships and messy lives. The relationships and characters are incredibly sensitive and humane. It is a romantic comedy that highlights the best and worst behaviors of people in relationships.

Silver Linings Playbook is a story of love, loss and everything in-between. The main character is Pat Solitano (Bradley Cooper). The story starts with Pat's release from a mental hospital after being treated for bipolar disorder for eight months. We find out Pat nearly killed a man who was having an affair with his wife Nikki (Brea Bee).

Nikki gets a restraining order against Pat after the attack. Pat's goa, for month,s was to become the man Nikki wanted and reunite with his wife. Pat's thinking was noble, yet grandiose, which fits with his bipolar diagnosis and symptoms. Yet, Pat found that living with a sense of hope after experiencing the despair of losing everything — his wife, job, home and freedom — provided meaning for him. He vowed to look for the silver lining from every experience, learn from it and move forward.

A friend of Pat's introduces him to Tiffany Maxwell (Jennifer Lawrence), a woman with a sordid past. Pat and Tiffany connect immediately, discussing the various psychotropic medicines they have been on to help them deal with their mental health symptoms. We learn Tiffany struggles with depression and is dealing with the unexpected death of her husband.

Pat and Tiffany begin to spend time with each other and find they can be themselves with each other. They don't pretend. They are honest, and tolerant of the others quirkiness and idiosyncrasies. Both are messes emotionally yet are able to connect with the "crazy" in each other.

1. Accept people for who they are. Embrace the quirks and emotional baggage your partner brings to the relationship. Tiffany and Pat accept each others' emotional baggage. Pat learned to stop idealizing Nikki and accept the reality she had moved on. He also came to appreciate Tiffany for her thoughtfulness and accepting him as the man he was already.

2. Don't try to change others. Nikki wanted Pat to be something he isn't. She was unsatisfied in the marriage and had an affair. In other words, Pat did not meet her expectations for who she wanted as a husband, so she made a tough situation worse by having an affair.

3. Find out who you are and be that. Don't try to change yourself into a mold of what your partner wants. Pat exercised, read literature, took care of his body and did all the things his wife wanted him to do. He did not especially like reading literature and found the stories somber and heartbreaking.

Pat even flew into a rage after finishing a book by Earnest Hemmingway, throwing the book out of his window and complaining to his parents, Pat Senior (Robert De Niro) and Delores Solitano (Jacki Weaver) at 4 a.m. When Tiffany and Pat were together, they were real with each other, which felt comforting and meaningful to both.

4. Learn to compromise. Tiffany wanted Pat to do a dance competition with her. He refused at first, but when Tiffany offered to get Pat's letter to Nikki, he agreed to dance. Pat began to appreciate Tiffany's support in trying to win his wife back. Tiffany also did not try to change Pat's goal. She knew she couldn't change him. She put Pat's obvious goal of reunifying with his wife above her needs.

5. Look for the silver lining amidst setback and pain. Pat holds onto the idea that life is what you make it. Trying is better than not trying, even if the odds are against you. You just may hit a jackpot. The storyline concludes with a double parley bet where Pat Sr. puts his life savings on the line giving the football team a ten point spread and betting that Pat and Tiffany score five out of ten at the dance competition. The tension unfolds as the football team wins by the given spread. Now Pat and Tiffany must score a five. After a hilarious dance routine, the score is revealed and a huge jackpot was won by all.

Relationships are messy. We all have emotional baggage, and it often gets in the way of having what we desire most. The best we can do is accept responsibility for your own baggage and be the best you can be. Be sensitive to others' emotional baggage, accepting you will make mistakes. When mistakes do occur, make relational repairs quickly.

Nicholas Hoult and Jennifer Lawrence are both acrobatic!

Guys always do weird things to impress girls. Like here, where Beast is hanging upside to show Mystique how strong his feet are. Girls like a guy with strong feet. Right?

Nicholas Hoult and Jennifer Lawrence can handle each other.

Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult have a great "how did you meet" story: They were covered in blue body paint and had to pretend to throw each other around the room! That's better than any story I've ever heard a couple tell!

Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult have both been blue!

Nicholas Hoult and Jennifer Lawrence have so much in common. For example, they both look good in blue. They both also probably never want to wear blue ever again.

Nicholas Hoult and Jennifer Lawrence really do have chemistry.

It's the worst when movies try to show teenagers being awkward, because instead of being charming it ends up just being actually awkward and painful to watch. Nicholas Hoult and Jennifer Lawrence had such good chemistry that it ended up not being awkward.

Jennifer Lawrence is super tough, too!

Jennifer Lawrence is no damsel in distress. If you mess with Jennifer Lawrence, she might KICK YOUR FACE WITH HER FOOT.

Nicholas Hoult is a tough guy!

That's Nicholas Hoult beating up Wolverine! I mean, I know it isn't really Wolverine, and the fight was scripted, and blah blah blah. He still gets to say he beat up Wolverine.

Nicholas Hoult and Jennifer Lawrence are just super CUTE!

Seriously, Nicholas Hoult and Jennifer Lawrence are having a picnic together! In an airplane hangar! You know who doesn't do stuff like this? Kristen Stewart. Instead, she just sits still in dark rooms and has no personality.

Jennifer Lawrence can get classy when she needs to be.

Jennifer Lawrence knows how to work what the good lord gave her. (That's a weird saying, isn't it? Like, God's designing people and going, "And this person is going to have extra jelly in their butt." I just made myself uncomfortable.)

Nicholas Hoult can get fierce.

When I watch shows about models competing about being models, and they talk about looking fierce, they never get it right. Nicholas Hoult defines fierce!

Jennifer Lawrence & Nicholas Hoult are adorably awkward together.

Seriously, look at them. Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult look like two teenagers watching their first movie together.

Guys always do weird things to impress girls. Like here, where Beast is hanging upside to show Mystique how strong his feet are. Girls like a guy with strong feet. Right?

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